Endless Blue Sea
by korel.c
Summary: For my muse; Caspian and Lucy, free, sailing on the Dawn Treader deeper into Aslan's country; where all tales are happy. Caspian/Lucy Post-LB.


**A/N: **For my muse; Luspian, Caspian/Lucy. Although in my head, all Narnian character's are those of rthstewart's interpretation, I figure (as Caspian says), there are as many Lucies as there are Aslan's Countries, which only grow larger as you go deeper in. And you never quite reach the center. So...this Lucy, and this Caspian, they belong together.

* * *

**Endless Blue Sea

* * *

**

"She is as beautiful as when we first sailed her," Caspian said, reclining against the mainmast, his legs sprawled out on the deck. As unmindful of royal dignity as he, Lucy swung in the rigging above him, betimes upside down and at others, twisted around and around the ropes.

"Aye!" Lucy called gaily down, and fell two, three squares down, until she could spring nimbly off the rigging to land before Caspian. "One might even say, dear Caspian, that she is more beautiful, more real, as is everything else in Aslan's country."

"I do not deny that, Lucy," Caspian said. "Everything is more beautiful in Aslan's country; but I should think that you or I are no less real."

Lucy coloured and dipped her head. "Caspian, ah - "

"This strange way of time, dear Lucy," Caspian said. "Shall I tell you my thoughts?"

The sails unfurled and filled with wind, Lucy turning the wheel. Caspian, standing over her height-wise no matter how much she grew, wrapped his arms around her. Lucy leaned back into his comfortable, familiar presence, and sighed. "Yes, Caspian, do."

It is in the way of Aslan's country that all tales have a happy ending. Thousands of years after the Golden Age in which the Four Kings and Queens ruled in Cair Paravel, Caspian the Tenth was born. His childhood was unhappy; the Telmarines made incursions into Narnia, and life was harsh and wild, the ancient civilisation long since lost. Prince Caspian listened to these early stories of jubilant festivals and the wise, just, valiant, magnificent decisions made by the king and queens and the High king, Peter, and loved them all. From the dry, dusty knowledge that he gained, he most decided that he loved Queen Lucy of them all. Her free spirit, and the courage she displayed to battle.

"Truly, Caspian?" Lucy asked, leaning her head upon his shoulder. "Has it been so long for you?" She closed her eyes and breathed in the scent of the sea, the salt crisp and the cries of seagulls pure.

Caspian placed a finger on her lips and kissed her eyelids. "Ah, Queen Lucy -"

"I offend!" Lucy cried. "My deepest apologies. Do go on, dearest Caspian. Let me not interrupt you further."

Upon that fateful day, then, Prince Caspian saw that the Kings and Queens of Narnia had returned, in its darkest hour. And yet, they were but children. Children, that he had underestimated deeply. Still - it was difficult to believe. The Just King, the Gentle Queen, even the High King Peter: in their manners it was easy to see the traces of the men and lady that they had been, in all of the stories. But in you, Lucy, you were wilder. I could believe and yet I could not believe, for you were younger than I.

"Caspian," Lucy said, softly. "I would not have you blame yourself for it. There is no fault."

"And yet," Caspian said, "When you vanished by Aslan's will, I cursed him. I cursed him that I had not had the time to know you better. And Aslan punished me and forgave me all at once, and you returned."

His voice lilted with wonder and awe, and Lucy's heart rose into her throat. The sea was clear ahead of them; she turned and took Caspian into the embrace of her arms, letting him rest his head upon her shoulder as his shoulders began to shake.

"Let the tears fall, Caspian," Lucy said. "There is no shame in it."

"Ah, Lucy," Caspian said. "Ah, that I had wronged you - that I had wronged Aslan himself."

"The Dawn Treader was beautiful, and is," Lucy said.

But that journey, Lucy, you know as well as I. Perhaps, as we sail toward the lilies in the East, we may sail beyond this time.

"Further up, and further in," Lucy said, as if to herself. "Perhaps we shall find something even more true, then."

"Aye," Caspian said, and fell quiet.

* * *

You see, dear Reader, that in Aslan's country all tales have a happy ending. In one tale, Caspian suppressed his love for the Valiant Queen, and for him then, it was a wise choice. For she had to leave; her time in Narnia was over. He grew to love Ramandu's Daughter, and in time she bore him a son. Rilian, who was later stolen by the Lady of the Green Kirtle. And that let Eustace, whose time in Narnia was not yet over, and Jill, whose time in Narnia was only just beginning, enter their tale's own happy ending.

But in another tale, Lucy loved Caspian as much as he loved she. And thus, in this tale, they reunited after they met again, in Aslan's country.

And in yet another, Lucy had a love for a foot-soldier in Archenland, who loved her and lost her after the Golden Age of Cair Paravel...but dear Reader, as Aslan would say, that is not this story, but someone else's, and it is someone else's to tell.

There are many Lucys; as many Lucys as there are Aslan's Countries; as many Caspians as Lucys, and as many Ramandu's Daughters and Rilians and Peters, and Edmunds, and Susans Pevensie, and Eustaces Scrubb and Jills Pole, Brees and Cors and Corins and even many Fledges.

But there is only one Aslan.

And He wants to see his children happy.

* * *

"'Tis a calm day, Lucy," Caspian said.

"When is it not?"

"When you glory in the rain, stare up at the thunder and exclaim over the majesty of it all," Caspian said, smiling. "And drag me out into the middle to wonder at it."

"But is it not wondrous, Caspian?" Lucy asked, her eyes wide and her fair hair lifting about her in the dancing breezes. "The rain and the wind and the colour of the clouds? - Oh!"

"It is wondrous, Majesty," Caspian said, walking toward her. "But it is also very wet."

"But, Majesty," Lucy said, with a curtsy, "One cannot get sick in Aslan's Country. Nor too cold, unless one wishes to be warmed." Her smile was impish, and she darted back from Caspian.

Caspian's eyes narrowed even as his lips quirked, and he began to stalk forward, forcing her playfully toward the bow.

"And if I do, Lucy?" Caspian said. "If I wish to be warmed?"

"Why, then," Lucy said, "I would advise you to light a fire!" She laughed, her voice ringing out over the vast sea, and swung up into the rigging. "Would you catch me now, Caspian?"

"Ah, Lucy," Caspian called. "You believe, that simply because I prefer to stay on the deck, that I do not know the ways of the knot and the rigging?" He scrambled onto the ropes, correcting his weight and height's disadvantages. "So, my Queen," he asked, "What will you give me if I catch you?"

"Catch me first, Caspian, and then you may ask! I believe you will find it more difficult than you think."

"You underestimate me, my Queen."

"You underestimate me, my King."

"Do I?"

He scrambled toward her, hand over hand and foot past foot, and Lucy backed away, swinging from square to square, rope to rope. She danced on the edge of the lookout, where Crook had nested with his mate and chicks, and swung off it to head between the other masts.

Caspian laughed as he followed. "I have not had such enjoyment in weeks, Lucy!"

"Is my company so irksome then, Caspian? For we have been on the Dawn Treader for weeks now."

"Have we?" Caspian said. "Truly, it seems that my time with you has only been minutes, if not less. The weeks before this; the last weeks I spent as a broken man, lessened by one wife and one dutiful child."

Lucy paused. "Oh, Caspian," she said. "You have lived such tragedy."

"Do not cry for me, my Queen," he said, almost to her. "I would have you do many things, but pitying me is not one of them."

Her gaze snapped up. "Do you believe that I pity you? No, Caspian, never. Rather, that I have compassion for you."

"As you have compassion for all things, Narnia's Valiant Queen," Caspian murmured, and held her to him with one arm, while his other hand held the rigging surely, much more sure than any such experience in the False Narnia.

Lucy tightened her arms about him and cried into his shoulder.

"Why do you cry?" Caspian asked.

"If you will not cry for yourself," Lucy said, "I will cry for you."

* * *

"Oh look!" Lucy cried. "An Albatross!"

"Where?" Caspian spun, looking for that mythical creature that Lucy had once told him about, upon the decks of his beloved Dawn Treader.

Lucy slipped out from under his arm and scampered across half the rigging.

Caspian shook his head.

"It is most unqueenly of you to lie, Queen Lucy," he said, and began his slow process toward her again.

"Did I lie?" Lucy asked, and backed away, faster than he could move. Her eyes danced with delight.

"Is there an albatross in sight?"

"Well," Lucy said. "I simply cried 'An albatross!' much like I could cry 'A sword!'"

"Technicalities, Lucy!" Caspian cried. "Much like if I were to say, "Warm me!" - 'tis most impolite to blurt it out loud."

"And yet," Lucy said, "You did."

"Ah, but," Caspian said, "That is between you and I, and 'warm' has several meanings also."

"Who now is spouting technicalities?" Lucy said, leaping to the deck so that she could put her hands on her hips. "Most unkingly of you, Caspian..."

Caspian dropped to the deck much less graciously, landing with a thump. "Oh, do look, Lucy! A storm!"

Lucy sighed. "I brought that upon myself, did I not?"

"Yes," Caspian said. "You did."

* * *

"Come, Caspian!" Lucy said, already shedding her clothing. Caspian turned determinedly around so as not to stare. "The currents are still and the winds are still. We cannot get sick, nor are there animals in the water that would harm us; though, not even in Narnia would that have happened. This is the perfect time for us to swim."

"Ah," Caspian said. "If it would not offend you, I would much rather stay on the deck while you swam, dear Lucy."

Lucy laughed, a bright peal of it. "No, Caspian, I know you. You wish to observe me in my state of undress!"

"Well," Caspian said, smiling slowly. "That may indeed be a small part of my reasoning..."

Lucy laughed again. "You are simply unmanageable at times, Caspian."

"But loveable?"

"Eminently," Lucy said, and kissed him on the nose. Setting her shirt aside, she cut the water in one clean dive.

Prince Caspian watched Lucy Pevensie, the dream of his childhood and his forbidden need in his adolescence and the early years of his reign, the comfort of his old age that he might see her again and his joy now. He watched her circle the water below. He looked down at his own body, this young, unscarred body. The water did indeed look very clear, today.


End file.
